Now that Tommy Robinson has been employed by Ukip we have to be very clear about one thing: the party has now transitioned officially to become a far right party, like the BNP, like the National Front, like the British Union of Fascists. No other interpretation can be drawn.
In the interests of full disclosure, it is only right that I state openly and ambiguously that I do not see the transition of Ukip as it moving a great distance. I have always argued that Nigel Farage was little more than a thoroughly modern, albeit Pound Shop, Mosley, the leader of the pre war fascists in Britain. The language and actions of Farage, which undoubtedly resonated with significant swathes of the electorate in the 2016 EU referendum, were to my eyes indistinguishable from the far right politics of Nick Griffin and his ilk.
Indeed, Farage stood proudly before a large poster of brown people escaping persecution, above the headline ‘Breaking Point’. Indeed, Farage was unarguably the key player in Britain leaving the EU, to the delight of his fellow hard right allies Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
What? Putin and Trump, fascists? Oh, too right. The former all but presides over a country that has only the most rudimentary democracy and the latter employs many the hallmarks of Nazi Germany, not least in his attempts to quash independent news organisations and the free press. Combine that with gruesome instances of racism, it is easy to see why Trump, Putin and Farage are far right soul brothers.
Robinson is not working for Ukip for his skills. It is part of a calculated move to take Ukip officially to the far right. The illusion that they were somehow apolitical has been shattered. A vote for Ukip is, and always was, a vote for the kind of people our fathers and forefathers fought against.
Conspiracy theorists see this as an excuse for Nigel Farage to make yet another political comeback and perhaps he will ride to the rescue again. But even if he does, Ukip will always be far right of centre, the voice of fascism in our green and pleasant land. Robinson’s arrival merely confirms it to be true.
